Nobuyoshi Tamura - Aikido in France

Aikido in France

Sent by Morihei Ueshiba, Tamura-shihan arrived in France in the port of Marseille in 1964 as the final destination of his honeymoon cruise (he paid part of his trip by performing aikido exhibitions on the ship). In France, he succeeded Tadashi Abe as the Aikikai representative there and decided to stay in this country teaching aikido, despite the fact that he could barely speak French at that time. Other aikido teachers in France then included Minoru Mochizuki, Masamichi Noro and Mutsuro Nakazono.

The French Aikido Federation was split into two in the 1980s purely because of political reasons. Those who decided to stay loyal to Tamura were for an independent aikido federation created the Fédération Française d'Aïkido et de Budo from scratch, while those who preferred to remain under the Judo federation (Fédération française de Judo et Disciplines Associées), later became independent as the Fédération française d'aïkido, aïkibudo et affinitaires under the technical leadership of Christian Tissier. The two once rival federations are now regrouped under the UFA (Union des Fédérations d'Aïkido).

In his early years in Japan, Tamura was acquainted with macrobiotic founder George Osawa. In France, he became friend with zen master Taisen Deshimaru who arrived in this country in 1965 and whom Osawa considered as his successor.

Tamura was an honorary citizen of the town of Lesneven, France, where he gave week long yearly summer seminars with fellow aikido sensei Yoshimitsu Yamada. The other two important aikido trainings he gave every year during the summer were Saint-Mandrier and La Colle-sur-Loup.